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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
One of the chief complaints for Strikeforce broadcasts on Showtime has been the policy of not airing any preliminary card fights when time permits, and instead opting to cut off more than one broadcast with time remaining on their allotted broadcast slot. Well, for their April 17th return to CBS at least, that may change.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAJunkie this week that they will be taping one of the preliminary card bouts to act as the fill in should one of the scheduled three Title fights end quickly. It will be the first time they've done so.
No preliminary card bouts are known as of yet, so until that information comes out it's entirely unknown what the night's possible fourth bout could be. Strikeforce: Nashville airs live on CBS beginning at 10PM ET on CBS with a tape delay on the west coast. The event is headlined by a Middleweight Title bout between Jake Shields and Dan Henderson, and features a Light Heavyweight Title bout between Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and a Lightweight Title bout between Gilbert Melendez and Shinya Aoki on the televised card.
Penick's Analysis: This is a smart decision, and one that they definitely need to have as a consideration with three Title fights on the card. If one or two of the Title fights goes short that leaves a lot of time to fill when they're scheduled for five rounds each, they need to have this fight ready to go or they've either got extra time to fill without a fight airing on the broadcast or the risk of the card ending extremely early with nothing more to air. They should consider taping more than just one bout, however, as it won't help them if a) the taped prelim isn't any good, or b) if that one fight itself takes too much time to allow them to air it anyway.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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